Alexander honoured to play part in Fleetwood story

Rob Stocks

Fleetwood boss Graham Alexander says he was proud to lead Fleetwood Town and believes the club is well set up for success in the future.

The former Highbury-boss chose to release a statement to The Gazette following his departure on Wednesday.

And despite the events of the past week, he made clear his gratitude to chairman Andy Pilley for giving him his big break in management.

Here is Alexander’s statement in full:

“Firstly I’d like to say how proud and privileged I felt to lead Fleetwood Town in my first role as a manager.

The club was new to the football league and looked to me to help progress not only the team but the infrastructure needed to compete at their new level. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to bring my ideas to life and work with like minded people who were ambitious and open to trying new things.

My gratitude to Andy Pilley, Phil Brown and Steve Curwood who after our first meeting connected with me and offered me the job remains the same as it did then.

They took a chance on me with no real managerial experience and I hope I repaid the faith shown in me.

Their support, especially in the early stage of my tenure when I faced numerous problems in turning us into promotion candidates was extremely helpful. There are also numerous people behind the scenes who have always been there since day one to help and I thank them all.

It has been an absolute pleasure to coach the players both past and present. Their commitment to their jobs was first class and I certainly enjoyed every day out on the training pitch working on improving them both as individuals and as a team. Their heartfelt messages of support since Wednesday mean such a lot to me and I will miss them.

I’d like to express my sincere thanks to each and every one of my staff for their total loyalty and dedication not only to myself, but each other. Some I have known for many years and some not so long but they all played a significant role in everything we have achieved over the last couple of years. I will miss working with them too.

We introduced new analysis and sports science departments, a wider scouting structure and development squad which have all proved to be extremely successful. The emergence of the young talent we’ve brought through the club and from non league is especially pleasing and helped us bring down the football budget by a large percentage. The average age of the squad is now very healthy for the long term future of the club and in time I’m sure these players will fulfil their full potential.

Finally I’d like to thank all the fans who supported me and my team since we came in. I hope the results over the last month don’t overshadow our two full seasons in which we won promotion from league 2 with that historic day at Wembley, and achieved a top ten finish in the clubs first ever season in league one. I genuinely wish the club every success in the future. It has been an honour to be part of the story.